Tom Benson, whose $5 million gift created the Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center at Ochsner Medical Center in 2010, has donated another $20 million to expand it, it was announced Tuesday (Nov. 10). The money will go toward growing cancer care services and advancing clinical research at Ochsner's main campus in Old Jefferson.

"For years, too many of our local and state-wide residents needed to seek cancer care away from home, and we needed to address that," said Benson, who underwent surgery at Ochsner in 2008 to remove a cancerous mass on his left kidney. The center is named for Benson and his wife.

Since its creation, the cancer center has served patients from eight states and seven countries, Ochsner said. For prostate, lung, colon and breast cancer, it claims five-year survival rates that are consistently above the national average.

Warner Thomas, president and chief executive of Ochsner Health System, said the expansion will double the capacity of the current center, which cared for 24,000 cancer patients last year. "We're a not-for-profit organization, so for us this is a transformational gift," he said.

A rendering of the expanded Tom and Gayle Benson Cancer Center.

The expanded cancer center will include:

100,000 square feet of oncology clinics across five floors

A full range of specially trained physicians who employ a team approach to treating cancer

A comprehensive approach to urologic, gynecologic and surgical oncology for all cancer types

A clinical cancer research program with a large range of clinical trials for all cancer types.